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Great flavor from a few simple ingredients. That’s what this Black Bean Salsa Soup is all about. And easy too! With a few cans of black beans, a jar of your favorite tomato salsa and some classic herbs and spices, you can serve an excellent and meat-free soup in a jiffy. A couple key points here: the Mexican oregano gives this an earthy flavor that the more popular Turkish oregano that’s used to flavor Italian dishes can’t duplicate. I also like using Coconut Oil with black beans because it adds just a hint of the Tropics, but feel free to substitute olive oil or unsalted butter if you like.

Rich, creamy and slightly decadent, this cheesy broccoli cauliflower soup is nonetheless absolutely delicious and sure to impress your family and friends. If you like broccoli or cauliflower, then you’ll need no convincing here. But if not everyone shares your love of cruciferous vegetables, this is the soup to bring them on board. Serve this to those who say, “I don’t like broccoli,” or “Cauliflower is gross,” and get ready for a change of attitude!

You can use fresh or frozen broccoli and cauliflower with equally excellent results. Don’t worry about chopping the vegetables too fine if you plan to blend them later as this recipe suggests. The salmon seasoning might seem like an odd thing to include in a non-seafood soup, but it goes very well with cauliflower and rich, cheesy dishes. If you don’t have any on hand, feel free to substitute an equal amount of Old Bay, Cajun or creole seasoning. The lemon juice, added right at the end, helps temper the richness of the cheese and gives the finished dish a nice bit of brightness.

Known as Chupe Criollo (Creole Soup) in Venezuela, this soup is really a chowder in disguise featuring chicken, cheese, corn, potatoes and one of my favorite herbs – cilantro. In fact, the recipe calls for an entire bunch of cilantro! Whereas cilantro is often used to finish a dish, here part of it is tossed in near the beginning to infuse the broth while the rest is added before serving to give it a final fresh herby punch. Since this is a chicken-and-cheese soup, traditionally you would dump in 4 to 6 ounces of cheese and let it dissolve into the soup shortly before serving. However, other recipes for Chupe Criollo advised against adding a bunch of cheese to the soup unless the entire pot will be eaten the same day it is cooked. The problem being that the cheese collects at the bottom of the soup pot in a large lump. I decided to serve the cheese on the side, and have it available to top off the soup instead of melt in it. Even if that’s not entirely authentic, I can assure you that this is an extremely delicious soup and a great introduction to South American cooking.

Lemony soups are very popular in Greece, where a basic broth is often padded with orzo or rice along with lemon juice to make a fresh-tasting soup with a citrus tang. Pieces of cooked chicken are a common protein add-on, but I wanted to do something a little different. For this Greek-influenced soup, I use a package of heat-and-eat frozen meatballs and bring them to life by quickly “cooking” them in a bed of sautéed onions before assembling the rest of the soup. You can increase the tartness of this soup with extra lemon juice; however, I recommend starting with 1/8 cup lemon juice and tasting before adding more.

This Hot and Sour Chinese Vegetable soup can be prepared entirely in a wok, taking advantage of the cookware’s quick-cooking capabilities and wide sides to keep anything from jumping out. A wok is really a versatile tool, and I love using mine for stir-frying as well as for making soups on the quick. If you don’t own a wok, it’s a worthy investment. I purchased a 14-inch Carbon Steel Wok from the Wok Shop two years ago and have been very happy with it.

So with wok on the burner, I set out on a busy Wednesday night to make a tasty vegetable soup with ingredients I had on hand and that wouldn’t take long to prep and cook. I started with tofu, Napa cabbage, carrots and garlic. Deep in the back of one cupboard I found a package of Ramen noodles and decided to add those, minus the seasoning packet, for some extra body. And for more speedy convenience, some Swanson’s Chinese-style Hot and Sour broth. This was my first soup using a packaged hot-and-sour broth, and it added plenty of flavor out of the gate. I was suspect that it would be more sour than hot, but that’s not the case. One of the broth’s primary ingredients is cayenne pepper, and this liquid does have a bite. My wife thought it was quite spicy, so you might want to cut the broth with some water if you’re not a spice lover. I, on the other hand, drizzled some Sriracha sauce over mine for a final burst of heat. Verdict? A very nice Asian-style veggie soup that came together quickly, was fun to make and had plenty of contrasting textures. Most importantly, it was a very flavorful soup.

Hungarian goulash is one of that country’s best-known and loved dishes and one we generally think of as a stew, but originally goulash was closer to a soup than a stew and this Goulash Soup Recipe version reflects those origins. Stew meets soup in this rich Goulash Soup full of the flavors of Hungary.